Chapter 25
Lying as still as I possibly could, I strained to hear what was happening next door. I heard Cadence’s water switch off but didn’t hear anything else for a while. I assumed she was still in the bathroom, drying off, etc. Just when I was beginning to think I was imagining everything, the bathroom door opened, and I heard my sister shriek. It wasn’t a scream—like she was in pain or something was attacking her—it was more like the sound someone might make at a surprise party. However, it was enough for me to know I wasn’t losing my mind.
It was muffled but distinct enough that I could make out every word. “What are you doing in my bedroom again?” my sister shouted.
Before he even spoke, I knew who she was speaking to. “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” I heard Aaron say. His voice was becoming too familiar to me. “I just climbed in the window…. I had no idea you were in the shower. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come in.”
I knew that wasn’t true. He hadn’t just climbed in the window. He’d been in there a few minutes, and he had to have known she was in the shower—he would’ve heard the water. Why would he lie about that? Maybe he didn’t want her to know that he was sitting there waiting for her to come out? What kind of a sicko was this guy?
My sister’s response was squeaky at best, and I wasn’t sure exactly what she’d said, but I heard, “…climbing in my bedroom window!” and then the sound of her footsteps as she angrily crossed the room to my side, where her closet and dresser were located. I assumed she was looking for clothing and must have had her towel wrapped around her and clenched in one fist.
Aaron’s voice sounded different, like he was embarrassed. It was always a bit quieter than most men I know, but this time it was unusual altogether. I could make out every few words, enough to know he was making excuses for why he was there. The last part sounded really odd to me, as I had no idea what it could mean—or maybe I had misheard it. “You don’t have your IAC yet.”
What the crap was an IAC?
My sister’s response came from right on the other side of the wall it seemed. She was rattling off all the other ways he could’ve gotten ahold of her, other than an IAC, whatever that was. He sounded apologetic as he agreed that she was right and it wouldn’t happen again.
Cadence’s bathroom door slammed. A few long seconds later, she shouted, “I’ll be out in a second!” like she was afraid he might leave while she was in there. Was she now okay that he’d snuck into her room?
I waited to hear if Aaron would make a hasty retreat out the window, but I didn’t hear anything at all. He was good at sitting still, if he was sitting. The floorboards didn’t creak either, so he wasn’t pacing. The more interaction (or covert interaction) I had with this man, the stranger he seemed. I wondered what he was exactly; I had a pretty good idea he was not a human.
Alien? Superhero? Doubtful. Genetic mutation? I had no idea.
A few minutes later, my sister’s bathroom door creaked open and I heard her crossing the room. I think she was headed toward one of the two chairs that sit next to the windows in her room, the same one Aaron thought was his personal entrance.
I could hear them talking but barely a word was discernible, and it was driving me crazy. My sister’s tone sounded much more pleasant now than it had a few minutes ago. I guess she’d gotten over the initial shock that there was an uninvited man in her bedroom. I knew that she’d had Jack over to study lots of times and my parents hadn’t minded when they went in her room. They trusted my sister completely. Kash and Jon had been in there plenty of times, too, but this was different. My parents might’ve known Aaron, but they didn’t know he was in her room, and I wondered what they would think if they knew he was here. He was older than Cadence, by his own admission. Was there something going on between them?
He didn’t seem like my sister’s type. Don’t get me wrong. Aaron is super attractive. Like I said earlier, he has stunning blue eyes and looks like he could be a model if he wanted to be. He’s nice enough, but there’s just something rigid about him. I could hear his soft laughter through the wall every once in a while, but it wasn’t the kind of easy-going laugh I’d heard from Jack. Aaron seems a little too polished for my sister, too, like the kind of guy who might get a manicure on a regular basis. He could easily be one of those guys all the girls desperately wish was straight, like Matt Bomer, but when you find out he’s gay, it’s not a huge shock.
My sister continued her conversation for a lot longer than I expected her to. If I hadn’t been straining so hard to try to hear what they were saying, I might’ve fallen asleep. But no matter how hard I concentrated, I only picked up a stray word here and there.
I heard the name Eliza again, but I still had no context for her. At this point, I thought that had to be the girl with the purple hair that had both taken my sister and brought her back. I also heard Christian again. And I’m pretty sure the term “IAC” came up again when they were talking about this fellow. I’d have to Google that and see if I could figure out what the heck an IAC could possibly be.
About an hour or so after he’d arrived, I heard Aaron say he needed to go. It wasn’t even 11:00 yet, but he probably knew what my sister had going on the next day. I wondered if these people would be at Drew’s funeral. They seemed to know her, somehow.
The springs in one of my sister’s chairs croaked as one of them stood up. Their voices were so quiet now, I couldn’t really even tell if they were talking or whispering. Then the window opened. I wouldn’t have even caught the noise, it was so fast, but I knew exactly what to listen for. I wished I’d been over by my own window so I could see if Aaron was still just a disturbance in the air as he leapt to the yard. Only a few seconds passed before I heard a motorcycle engine several blocks away. There was no way he could’ve gotten there that quickly if he was a regular human person like the rest of us. But then, at that point in my life, I was beginning to wonder who was human and who wasn’t. And the people who weren’t, like my sister, what were they?
